The Giants have been a streaky team this year, and this week is no different being mired in a seven game skid. Willie and Chad talk about the Giants recent struggles, injuries, the return of Cain and Peavy, and beat up on Don Mattingly. We also made ourselves feel better talking about the four Giants that were selected to the All Star game.

The Giants went 4-2 for the week, which is something amazing considering they were under.500 at home. Despite a 12-13 June (ok, they can still be .500 with a win tonight), the Giants are only 1/2 game back of the Dodgers. Chad and Ben discuss the month of June, the All Star game voting, Duffy and more!

Before I joined TortureCast in August 2011, I regularly contributed a segment on the show called, “Out of Left Field.” It was usually a short 60 seconds of me rambling on about some esoteric stat, streak, or oddity of the Giants’ season.

I’ve decided to resurrect it, and potentially in audio format once again. Because, who doesn’t like listening to themselves? Ok, I don’t, so here it is in digital print. At least most fonts aren’t embarrassing. Except for Comic Sans, of course.

The Giants finally broke their 9 game skid at home, which was the longest losing streak since 1940 at the Polo Grounds. I mean, that’s when gas was 18 cents a gallon and my grandmother was still in France about to hide from the Nazis.

Despite tonight’s 2-0 loss, MadBum pitched well and was perfect for 4 2/3 until a cleat-made divot caused a ball to bounce at Crawford’s insured face, necessitating the scorekeeper to laugh diabolically and mark it as a hit. Maybe that had a butterfly effect on the Giants’ offense. No, wait, no, that had about as much affect on their offense as I do screaming at the TV while I tear the wings off of a butterfly.

The Giants are 5-12 since their high-water mark of 30-20. After starting the season 4-10, that means the “meat” of the season sandwich was 26-10.

Giants are 8 GB of last year’s record after 67 games. In fact, they haven’t been worse at this point over the last 5 seasons: 2013: 0 GB, 2012: 2 GB, 2011: 3 GB, 2010: 2 GB

Marco Scutaro was symbolically re-signed by the Giants and immediately placed on the 60-day DL. He can now retire a Giant. And to think that I truly believed (last year) that he would certainly come back at some point to relive his glory days in 2012 and 2013. Sadly, he’s rehabbing his 2 fused vertebrae and hoping to “live a normal life, pain free” with his family. Egad. He might not ever play even beer league softball. I’ll stop my bitching about my injured wrist that prevents me from cleaning and jerking in my CrossFit sessions. And jerking.

Matt Cain and Jake Peavy are close to coming back into the rotation, but the Giants have stated that they will not go to a six man rotation, which begs the obvious, “who’s out?” I’d say take out Mike Murphy. There are no alternatives.

As of today, the Royals would have 8 starters in the All Star Game. If this holds, it’ll be the National League vs. the Royals, plus Mike Trout. I “kind of” want this to happen, if only to force MLB into changing this ridiculous ASG voting by the fans. Ok, well, Aoki is currently slated to start for the NL (being a former Royal), so maybe just this year…. In fact, wouldn’t it be something if Giants fans propelled 8 Giants starters to the final ballot? Man, the Royals could get their revenge…

Don’t look now, but Arizona is only two games back of the Giants. I thought Diamondbacks were not allowed to pray to their snake goddess.

Chris Heston was named NL player of the week. I wonder if anyone HASN’T been named that after a no-hitter. Glad someone else didn’t throw a perfect game that week, I suppose.

Maybe the Warriors can win every odd year championship.

Javier Lopez: 0.96 ERA, 0.64 WHIP. Dayum.

Giants are hitting .284 as a team on the road, which leads all MLB, 12 points higher than the next team. Can haz hitting at home? (.249)

Despite the last few downturns, they’re only 2.5 games back of the Bums. Could be worse. Let’s get back to that meat I mentioned earlier. Maybe it was grand salame?

Pence should try and squeeze every dime he can out of the Giants, wouldn’t you?

We all know Hunter Pence is ridiculously hot. Well, the ladies may also think he’s “hot,” but of course I’m referring to his unbelievable production at the plate in the second half, specifically over the last two weeks. He absolutely crushed the Dodgers, hitting 5 home runs in the 4 game series. He’s also hit 6 in his last 6 games and 7 in his last 10, in which he’s also hitting .450 with 20 RBI…and that includes two games where he went 0-4! About the only thing he hasn’t done is somehow gain the ability of flight to catch that Chavez sinking liner that would have preserved Petit’s perfect game.

He’s hitting .421/9/25 for September, and .352/11/44 after the All-Star break, lifting his average to in impressive .295/25/92. Just a few weeks ago it seemed impossible that Pence could reach .300/25/100, but it’s absolutely within his grasp now (heck even 30 HRs), and although it’s been great for the Giants on the field, I wonder how it will affect their pocketbook.

It’s widely reported that Pence loves SF and wants to re-sign, but an extension wasn’t in the works before the trading deadline, and there was speculation that he might be traded. After his elation as the deadline passed, Giants fans took to Twitter to push for such a deal.

A few days ago, Pence himself confirmed that he’s talking with the Giants, telling Hank Schulman that there have been “conversations.” While this is encouraging, what does his recent hot streak do to his market value? No doubt it’s gone up, and if he hits those magical numbers in his slash line, Pence may cost quite a bit more than his assumed $13-14 million per year. He’d be an idiot, though, to NOT test the market, no matter how much I personally want him to resign. Why wouldn’t you? You don’t know what you’re worth until you have offers, and I assume that’s what his agent is pressing him to do. Other than the rare outlier who takes a hometown discount (Jared Weaver), most players want validation, if not the money. Even if his ultimate goal is to stay in SF, he can use other offers as leverage to force Sabean and co. to throw a few more simoleons, if not years into the deal.

Sabean and Baer have repeatedly acknowledged that they need a left fielder with a stick, but they would suddenly need two such outfielders should they let the market consume Pence. If these conversations progress, the Giants will have until five days after the conclusion of the World Series to lock him up, otherwise, he’ll find out what he’s truly worth.

In a magical season for Melky Cabrera, a career year, All Star game MVP, the adoration of Melkmen and Melkmaids, and one that has helped propel the Giants to the top of the division, the team and the public were notified today that he tested positive for testosterone, a banned substance.

Not that it matters much, but Melky immediately admitted he took a substance “he knew he shouldn’t have,” and apologized to the team and the fans. It’s certainly better than other players that have denied use of PEDs, attributing their positive test to a supplement, or even worse, a delayed FedEx delivery (looking at you, Braun). Personally, it’s not much of a reprieve of the blow the Giants will take, and their chances of pushing towards the playoffs. Fifty games is fifty games, no matter if you deny it or accept responsibility. There is no additional punishment for denial.

The Commissioner’s office has also confirmed that he will be eligible after 4 games into the postseason, should the Giants make it. So, if they do make the divisional round, he could see action in games 6 & 7 and afterwards, or potentially 5-7 if they have a one game wild card playoff.

Although this news cracked the wires less than an hour ago, there’s already twitter chatter about how this will affect his contract next year. Many stating that obviously he made a mistake not negotiating a contract with the Giants earlier in the year, which is predicated upon the fact that his monster year will garner up to or over $15 million per year on the open market. Sorry to say, Melky, that number was at least cut in half, in my opinion. It’s not only because of your new record of testing positive, but now there will obviously be questions about how the testosterone improved your performance. Assuming he’s off of it next year, how will his numbers change? Will he be a .350 hitter with 15 bombs? Since this is a career year for him, and it happens to be during a time he was taking PEDs, I would say, probably not.

That doubt will now linger in the minds of the Giants front office, the other 29 clubs, and especially Giants fans, much like when you gamble with a carton of milk that’s a few days past its expiration date with the “sniff” test.

A tough week ends up okay for the Gigantes, as we get ready to celebrate the All-Star Weekend with 4 of our own boys heading to Arizona. Plus: We talk second base, Ryan Vogelsong, Brian Wilson’s bat, Marc Kroon, unexpected offensive explosions, and we ask a few hard questions.

If you’re in the San Francisco or Phoenix areas, we have a couple tweetup opportunities coming up! Mike is planning to attend Buster Posey Bobblehead Night on 7/10 at AT&T Park, while Ben is hopping a plane to Phoenix for the 2011 All-Star Game! If you’re going to be near either event, find us via @torturecast or torturecast@gmail.com and let’s hear what you have to say!

The inaugural episode of TortureCast! Willie Dills, Mike G and Ben Lee discuss the San Francisco Giants championship season as well as the 2011 team. Other topics include the draft, the last weeks games and much more.